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The Plum Cafe Asian Grill offers fusion foods with flavors of Thailand, China and Vietnam. (Dean Hanson/Journal)
A restaurant’s chances for success can depend on the owner knowing what he’s up against; typically one can’t beat the experience of growing up in a restaurant family, where all of the hard work and (often) lean profits are a mundane reality and unsurprising when the restaurant reins are handed down. For the Plum Cafe Asian Grill near the Century Rio 24, decades of restaurant knowledge come together with a Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese menu mashup, where curries, starches, and spice play together on your plate.
Since opening in late 2011, Plum Cafe’s format has stabilized by tweaking a few dishes and shifting from a counter-ordering model to full table service – a simple change that favorably alters the dining tempo. A pot of tea arrives first, itself a mish-mash of execution with loose tea leaves and an inadequate filtering system. We scan the scattershot menu for intriguing flavor combinations, beginning with tacos.
Yes, this is an Asian kitchen with aspirations to bridge the flavor gap to other cultures, making Vietnamese Tacos ($7.95) all the more interesting. After a taste of the marinated beef and veggie filling, all bets are off on fusion food as boring. We realize that anything tasty scooped up with a soft corn shell is perfectly delicious, right down to the drizzle of Sriracha mayonnaise sauce. Ignore the routine sweet potato fries on the side, as well as the unexciting pot stickers from the appetizer menu – we have more interesting dishes to tackle.
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Plum Cafe Asian Grill LOCATION: 4959 Pan American Freeway NE (behind Chama River Brewery), 433-3448, plumcafeabq.com HOURS: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays BEER AND WINE |
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Salads are one of my areas of expertise – this should come as no surprise by now – and I leapt on the Shaking Beef Salad ($9.95), asking the server to load it up with fiery heat. Combined with the flame-taming coconut milk in my companion’s Green Curry ($8.95), both of our tongues were kept within perfect spicy tolerances. Each of the tender veggies in the curry was matched with a nugget of chicken perfectly stir-fried to retain every bit of juiciness.
Not content to simply serve rice on the side, steamed veggies filled out the plate and glistened under a light sheen of oil. The beef salad was absolutely average for its type – no disrespect intended – save for the medium-rare beef strips both delicious and tender.
